Cemetaries, Mopeds, The Pink House & The Curse of the Whiz Dells Strikes Again

S A V A N N A H

From Virginia, we continue to head south to our next stop - the BEAUTIFUL Savannah, GA.  Aaron had been there a number of times and swoons when he refers to the moss hanging from the trees, the parks, the old homes...and he was so RIGHT!!  But before we got to experience the charm of the city, we needed to get settled into our RV park right outside of town.  As we drove into Savannah, it was POURING down rain and I mean dumping with the largest black cloud hovering overhead.  We had not set up our home away from home yet in the rain so this was going to be interesting.  We pull up to what the internet describes as an southern oasis like no other to what could have just as easily been a drive in movie theater off the local highway with the current RV population being 2.  Activities available at this RV park included one - if you like lawn mowing.  Aaron scratches his head and is thinking thru all of the other options that he had researched prior to the kick off of the trip and deduced that Savannah is not a RV dwellers destination of choice like us...the Griswolds.  So, while sitting in the car waiting for the rain to stop, Priceline here we come.  And, yeah, why not put a bid in at a 3 star hotel right in the historic district for $75?  Bingo, Bango, Bongo, we wait for our results and...the DeSoto Hilton (with rooftop pool) it is!  Now, to park the beast...what to do?  According to McKenna, it took us at least an hour to find a parallel parking spot for the beast and the tahoe which equals about 33 feet...ha!  We finally found one that was not on an hourly meter and the street sweepers weren't scheduled for the next 36 hours so we seemed to be in good shape.   We grab our 8 bags and drag them 8 blocks to our hotel in the 98 degree heat and 98% humidity.  By this time, it is past dinner time so we grab thai to go and went back to chill in the air conditioned hotel room to watch "America's Got Talent" and we agreed with the judges, Professor Splash deserved to go on to the next round.  Our first night of sleep was routinely interrupted by the drunk loud talker/fast talker/laugher until about 2 am and I am not talking about Karie.  :)

Day 2 - Our first stop was the birthplace of Juliet Gordon Low - the originator of Girl Scouts.  From there, we walked to little garden squares and cemetaries that were covered with the most beautiful trees and grounds...on our way to the pier where we watched how Salt Water Taffy was made, browsed through some antique stores, and window shopped.  By this time, it was HOT so we headed back to the hotel for some pool time.

Earlier in the day, we had walked by a Moped rental place and after some sweet talking, Aaron went to pick up our little hog which we rented for the evening and the following morning until 10am.  Aaron and McKenna walked down the street to pick her up and then took her for a spin around the city.  To quote McKenna, "It was awesome and I loved going around corners. My dad was a good driver and now, I would like to have one for my birthday."  From Aaron, "She was a bute...top speed was 39 MPH and I called her my hog for two days straight."  From Sydney "I loved it and had to hold onto daddy so I wouldn't fall off."  Then they came back, we set the kids set up with dinner and a movie and we hopped on the hog and went to Vick's for apps and cocktails.  People kept staring at us while we drove along the main drag at the Pier and we were not sure if it was our big helmets or the fact that we were only going 39 MPH, but we got a lot of laughs and waves.  We headed to Forsyth Park for a little tour and then on to the Pink House for a night cap and to listen to Liberace's apprentice play the piano.  When he ackowledged guests, he shot his finger guns at them and would yell "thanks for coming!" 

From Karie - "Please do not call CPS on us for leaving our girls at the hotel.  They actually did GREAT and they called us about every two minutes just to clarify who was in charge, couldn't get Netflix to work, clarify again who is in charge...and upon our return, McKenna showed us how she had kept a log of all of the things that Sydney did wrong.  What a babysitter!"

And the loud talker/laugher was at it  again until about 3 am. 

Day 3 - The girls were dying to get on the hog one more time before we had to return her so Aaron took Sydney to get breakfast near Forsyth Park.  McKenna was next up and they grabbed breakfast and returned the precious hog back to the the rental place.  Tybee Island was next - on the Atlantic Ocean, beach community, time to play on the beach time!  We found the greatest shack/restaurant that was so good and so cheap we ate there twice.  Holla at Huck-a-poo's!    We met a lady in Savannah who surfs Tybee a lot and she told us to be careful at the main beaches because it is jellyfish mating season so they are very close to shore and they can sting something fierce.  She told us of anotherbeach and so we decided to head there and it was awesome - not too crowded, lots of beach to play in, a nice couple that let us watch them crab, and kite surfers.  We were also told that we might see a dolphin or two but Flipper never showed. 

Huc-a-poo's

We had to say goodbye to Savannah on day 4 and we were off to the ATL to visit friends.  When we walked back to our car/trailer , we had a ticket on the trailer because we broke the "no RV's in Savannah" rule.  Ooops.  There were no signs!

We arrived in Atlanta with no sweat, literally and figuratively.  Our friends, Cameron, Jen, Iris, and Ava had dinner and drinks waiting for us !  The girls were so excited to swim and see their friends so we all headed to the community pool for some swimming and dive practicing after din-din!  The following day we headed to Lake Lanier for a day of sun, water slides, swimming, and fun.  A question came to me (Karie) as we were there - what do you do when you see someone with a huge long snot-cicle in a pool and you watch him wipe it off of his nose/face region and then put his hand in the water.  Do you walk the other direction hopefully to another part of the pool?  Do you get out all together for a few until the chlorine takes care of it?  Just typing about it is making me kinda gag...I  thinks about wierd things like this...what did I do you ask?  Well, I got out of the water because I was gagging...and it took me about 15 minutes to go back in...my gag reflexes were firing on all cylinders I guess.

We all loved the slides, the company, and to catch up with good friends.  We were royally taken care of.  We went to church that night and we got a little lost on our way until we say what was equivalent to the Tacoma Dome in the distance.  The sanctuary could seat 10,000 but this evening there were about approx. 1000.  The worship choir was 30 color coordinated in black and gray people that were pretty amazing.  One gal in particular rocked the house.  Interesting experience overall but probably not our cup of tea.  We have been sampling all kinds of churches and this definitely added a different experience to the mix for all of us.

From ATL, we looked ahead to our longest stretch of driving yet - to Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico.  About 21 hours. 

Love, us

P.S.  Oh yeah, the curse of the Whiz Dells...well, we hopped in our car to head to Lake Lanier and realized that satan's breath was back!  We got our of the car and noticed a pool of green freon on the driveway.  The steam coming out of Karie's ears and the expletives running thru her head were not something to witness again hopefully.  What to do?